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If summer basketball is important for the players, it may be more important for first-year coaches. North Kansas City High coach Ryan Fuger knows just that.

"We are playing in the Rockhurst High School League and I am good friends with Coach (Mark) Nausbaum. He has been helping me out and giving me tidbits here and there. That has been good for me. Just being around the guys and getting them used to my voice is key."

Fuger said the summer is also a good time for him and his team to focus on getting better individually.

"We focus a lot on individual skills and fundamentals in the summer," Fuger said. "We also get in just a ton of games. We probably play twice as many games in the summer as we do during the actual season. Young guys are getting a lot of experience playing against good competition, and older guys are refining their skills against the same competition."

During that time the environment remains as positive as possible. There is a lot of talking players up and hardly any yelling.

"I try not to be negative hardly at all," Fuger said. "If there is an effort issue then you are going to get negativity. As far as missing shots and turning the ball over, we try to focus on the positives. If there is a shot and they miss it, we just clap and say good shot. We try to stay away from the negativity."

That is because the summer is a time for learning and getting better. It is a time when Fuger can afford to have guys learning from mistakes, and his team does not pay the price for it.

"We focus a lot during the game on the teamwork and sharing the ball," Fuger said. "We want to focus on the ball-handling and passing skills. We really focus on point guards trying to handle the ball against pressure. We may leave them out there through eight, nine or 10 turnovers if they are young guys who need the experience.

"The individual comes before the team in that situation. Then when it comes to the season if that individual is not better the team suffers more."

The most important thing is having guys show up and be part of the program. Fuger and his players know they have ground to make up on other teams, and the summer is a good place to start that growing.

"If the guys don’t show up we are not going to get any better," Fuger said. "We know the schools that are already good programs do this every single day. They are working their tail off. If we aren’t working harder then they are we are never going to catch them. We just feel here that if everyone isn’t here, and we aren’t working harder than other teams, then there is no possibility of catching them. We want to catch them."

Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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